Huandacareo (or Guandacareo) is an archaeological zone located about 60 kilometers north of the city of Morelia, in the state of Michoacán.
The site was constructed on an elevated plateau overlooking the Cuitzeo lake, some from its north western shores and about two kilometers from the center of the Huandacareo town and municipality. Locally the place is better known as "The Nopalera".
The site is located on the western side of Lake Cuitzeo, located at around . It has an area of 300–400 km2.
The lake is astatic, and the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second largest freshwater lake in Mexico.Galindo de Obario, Marcela. "Water Quality and its Spatial Variability in Lake Cuitzeo, Mexico" 2005. International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Enschede, Netherlands. ITC.nl
Although this site is of a clear Purépecha ancestry, the geographic location on the Cuitzeo basin and the ceremonial center concept, attests to the presence of some cultural elements originating elsewhere. As an example obsidian from the "cerro de Zináparo" in northern Michoacán or from Zinapécuaro east of Cuitzeo can be noted; as well as coastal materials, especially the Pacific Ocean. Also from the Mexican plateau and certainly from the Purépecha region of Pátzcuaro, that provided the main cultural influence.
Background
The site is located in the Michoacán () region. The name Michoacán is from Nahuatl and means "place of the fishermen" referring to those who fish on Lake Pátzcuaro. In prehispanic times, the area was the home of the Purépecha Empire, which rivaled the Aztec Empire. The state has today native members of the Purépecha people as well as Otomis and Nahuas.
According to the archeological evidence, there has been human habitation within the territory of Michoacán state for at least 10,000 years. In the pre-Hispanic period there were a number of waves of migration into the area, including the Pirinda, Nahua, Huetamo, Colima, Purépecha and other peoples. There are sites of formal settlements from all Mesoamerican period. Important sites include El Opeño and those in Curutarán, Tepalcatepec Apatzingán, Zinapécuaro and Coalcoman. The territory has been inhabited by the Nahuas, Otomis, Matlatzincas, Pirindas and Tecos as well as the Purépecha. Archeological sites found in the state, have helped clarify the historical origin and ethnicity development of Michoacán. It dates back to the Mesoamerican formative or preclassical period (1500 to 200 BCE), the classical period (200 BCE to 1000 CE) and the post-classical (800 to 1000 CE). Those sites include: El Opeño, Curutarán, la Villita, Tepalcatepec, Apatzingán, Zinapécuaro, Coalcomán, San Felipe de los Alzati, Tzintzuntzan, Tingambato, Pátzcuaro, Zacapu, Uruapan, Tzitzio, etc.
The main pre-Hispanic civilization of the state is that of the Purépecha, which was centered in the Lake Pátzcuaro area. Before the 13th century, both Nahua and Purépecha peoples were here, sustaining themselves by agriculture and fishing. The Purépecha are descendants of a late arrival of Chichimecas who came from the north. At Lake Patzcuaro, they came upon people with similar cultures to their own but who were more technically and socially advanced. The formation of the Purépecha state began in the 13th century, when these people started their own dominion at Uayameo, today Santa Fe de la Laguna and becoming dominant over the entire Lake Patzcuaro area by the 15th century. Conquest of neighboring tribes and territories occurred between 1401 and 1450, absorbing peoples with different cultures and languages into the empire. By the late 15th century, this state rivaled that of the Aztecs, expanding their territory over much of what is now Michoacán and into part of Colima, Nayarit, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Guerrero and Jalisco. The Aztecs attempted to invade Purépecha but were repelled. This would later cause the Purépecha to deny the Aztecs aid in the defense of Tenochtitlan against the Spanish.
The Michoacán history has been studied from archaeological evidence and historical documents, such as the literary work "Relación de Michoacán", written in 1524 by Frair Jeronimo de Alcalá. Hence it is known that the first settlers of the region were several Chichimeca tribes which arrived in different times, and therefore evolved differently.
Toponymy According to INAH, Huandacareo comes from the Purépecha word Uandakua that has several meanings such as "Trial Place", "Speaker Place" or "tribunal".
According to another version the Huandacareo word, is of Chichimeca origin and translates as "Preaching Place", as it derives from the "huandaca" word that means "speech".
Chichimec culture Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian". The name was adopted with a pejorative tone by the Spaniards when referring especially to the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples of northern Mexico. In modern times only one ethnic group is customarily referred to as Chichimecs, namely the Chichimeca Jonaz, although lately this usage is being changed for simply "Jonáz" or their own name for themselves "Úza".
The Chichimeca peoples were in fact many different groups with varying ethnic and linguistic affiliations. As the Spaniards worked towards consolidating the rule of New Spain over the Mexican native peoples during the 16th and 17th centuries, the "Chichimecan tribes" maintained a resistance. A number of ethnic groups of the region allied against the Spanish, and the following military colonization of northern Mexico has become known as the "Chichimeca Wars".
Many of the peoples called Chichimeca are virtually unknown today; few descriptions mention them and they seem to have been absorbed into mestizo culture or into other native ethnic groups. For example, virtually nothing is known about the peoples referred to as Guachichiles, Caxcanes, Zacatecos, Tecuexes, or Guamares. Others like the Opata or "Eudeve" are well described but extinct as a people.
Purépecha culture
The Purépecha area has been inhabited at least since the early Pre-classic period. Early lithic evidence from before 2500 B.C. like fluted points and stone utensils are found at some Megafauna kill sites. The earliest radio-carbon dates of archeological sites fall around 1200 B.C. The best known early Pre-classic culture of Michoacán was the Chupicuaro culture. Chupícuaro sites are mostly found on lake islands which can be seen as a sign of it having traits relating it to the later Purépecha cultural patterns. In the early Classic period, ballcourts and other artifacts demonstrate a Teotihuacan influence in the Michoacán region.
In the late classic at least two non-Purépecha ethnic groups lived around Lake Pátzcuaro: Nahuatl speakers in Jarácuaro, and some Chichimecan cultures on the northern banks, with the Nahua population being the second largest.
According to the Relación de Michoacán a visionary leader of the Purépecha named Taríacuri decided to gather the communities around Lake Pátzcuaro into one strong state. Around 1300 he undertook the first conquests and installed his sons Hiripan and Tangáxoan as lords of Ihuatzio and Tzintzuntzan respectively, himself ruling from Pátzcuari city. By the death of Taríacuri (around 1350), his lineage was in control of all the major centers around Lake Pátzcuaro. His son Hiripan continued the expansion into the area surrounding Lake Cuitzeo.
The people of the Purépecha Empire were mostly of Purépecha ethnic affiliation but also included other ethnic groups such as the Nahua, Otomi, Matlatzinca and Chichimec. These ethnic groups were gradually assimilated into the Purépecha majority group.
Chupícuaro culture This culture is important due to the influence it had in the area. It is possible it spread to southern United States, 500 BCE. There are theories that the first Guanajuato inhabitants belonged to this culture.
Ceramics of this culture is earlier than the classical mesoamerican period, includes angular figurines with geometric shapes. The Acámbaro museum exhibit pieces from the Purépecha, Mazahua, and Otomi cultures.
Apparently the Chupícuaro culture developed in a vast territory, or it was defined as Chupícuaro style or tradition (Beatriz Braniff) in, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Guerrero, Mexico State, Hidalgo, Colima, Nayarit, Querétaro and Zacatecas. It is estimated that Chupícuaro facilitated the northward expansion of Mesoamerican elements (cultural roots of western Mexico and perhaps Northwest, comparable with the Olmec culture throughout Mesoamerica.Jiménez Moreno, 1959: 1043.
Chupícuaro had an important cultural development and expansion of its style in distant areas from the diffusing center and influenced ceramic traditions, which lasted until the end of the classical period, and even into the Postclassical, as seen in Purépecha Michoacán ceramic.
At the end of 1985, at the first prehispanic societies meeting, in relation to the Chupícuaro culture it was noted, that Chupícuaro tradition ceramics manufacturing groups, should be considered part of Mesoamerican stratified societies, with a definite political and territorial structure and not as isolated village societies, lacking ceremonial centers and architecture. From that first impulse, subsequent social groups presented own cultural expressions, at regional level in the Mesoamerican context.Crespo, et al., 1988:259.
The Site
The construction of this ceremonial center is estimated towards year 1200 CE, and it functioned until 1536, when Spaniard destruction of the Purépecha civilization occurred.
This is confirmed by the finding of a prehispanic characteristics burial, in which several European glass pieces were found, which means that when these materials were present in the Mexico plateau, in western Mesoamerica prevailed prehispanic cultural patterns.
Discovery and investigations The first excavations season commenced in December 1977.
The site was vandalized by plunderers since the beginning of the last century, had excavated the site removing artifacts and by farmers that cultivated on the structures. Up to that time no archaeological work had been made in this region that revealed any antecedents for the need to initiate works.
The site topography was the only clue as to location of the structures, since initially there were visible signs of them; mounds could be seen mainly at the top of the hill. Once the first wall was found, it was named Structure A, excavations were extended following in both directions, removing dirt and rubbish.
In addition to Structure A, other structures were found around the site. It is important to point out that according to Purépecha architectonic tradition, temples and their foundations always were built on top of natural hills, over an artificial platform, or, as in the Huandacareo case, over platforms and plazas, for this purpose they built retention walls embedded to the mountain slopes.
The site has been reconstructed, to differentiate original sections from those reconstructed; new sections are recessed five centimeter in average from the original sections.
From the first excavations season of 1977, five more seasons took place ending in 1983, since then, no further work has been performed. As a result of the little attention the place is neglected.
Historical brief The site dates back to pre-Hispanic times and was part of the region oldest cultures in the region, known as "Chupícuaro", which was based in the creeks of the Cuitzeo Lake. They received Teotihuacán and pre-Purépecha influence. Later they were conquered by Purépechas, to whom tributes were paid.